Hodgson: Rashford Got Drinkwater’s Spot

England manager Roy Hodgson has revealed, Marcus Rashford got Danny Drinkwater’s spot, as he is opting for an attack minded set up.

Rashford scored on his debut for England in the 2-1 win over Australia, is one of five strikers that will be on the trip to France.

Former England international, Alan Shearer accused the manager of favouring reputation over form, with Jordan Henderson and Jack Wilshere getting picked ahead of the Leicester City midfielder, despite injury problems.

But Hodgson explained his rationale at a media conference on Wednesday.

“He was a tough one to leave out,” Hodgson said of Drinkwater.

“As far as we are concerned if you look back over the two years we have been working together, Danny was very much the last man in, in that respect.

“It simply became a question of do I take the extra attacker or midfielder? That’s how Rashford came about. He’s had that fantastic end to the season and it will be very interesting to see in a squad of 23 whether he can bring those qualities at a higher level.

“It certainly was never going to be ‘if we put Rashford in for this game and he does well, we’ll take him’. For us it’s always been the balance of the squad rather than X v Y who play in the same position.

“The balance is good, if anything tilted towards an offensive approach. We believe defending is very much a team job and we can’t just rely on a back four and a goalkeeper.

“We need great mobility and great running power to defend in that way. With this squad they’ve got the ability to give us that. Often in a tournament the players that get injured or suffer a lack of form are the guys at the cutting edge, the guys who make the difference or score the goals.

“I’m comfortable that, whatever way we want to play, we’ll be covered. Systems win you nothing. Football players win you games.”